Michael you believe it is a doomed strategy I think it is more a Strategy of Cyanism.

UEFA regulations strictly prohibit clubs with the same ownership from competing in the same UEFA competition (e.g., Champions League or Europa League).If Everton finish in a European spot and AS Roma finish in a European spot, only one can play in UEFA tournaments (the one with the higher league finish). Michael you believe that TFG wants to sell Everton for £1bn. However, a multi-club structure makes Everton harder to sell to a third party, because any new buyer must untangle the shared scouting networks, data, and commercial deals with Roma.

Serie A remains a cheaper, more forgiving league to compete in. The average player value in Italy is £8m, compared to £28m in England. For a dollar-conscious owner, Italy offers a far better return on investment.But Everton with Premier League Media rights is a cash cow in comparison to Roma.

IMO we are looking at some type of Multi Club development pipeline. Broadcast revenue is plateauing.Without European football and with limited transfer spending, Everton's financial future depends entirely on maximising every pound of commercial, matchday, and player-trading income.That is the strategythe Friedkins appear to be following.

So after being at the financial front of Financial Self preservation and offshore Finance, we are at the coalface of Multi Club development. To be a Evertonia is to suffer.

I'm not sure this article would have been written if (as obviously planned) the Balogun deal had worked out.

Yes, TFG want us to operate within the rules etc and after our period of severe austerity, points deductions etc (still biting with the circa £40m possibly heading to Burnley) it is hard to argue with that. I don't think that's evidence of a doomed strategy.

In fact, all of the players we did buy in the low cost (i.e. sub £30m zone) look like astute purchases. To that extent it's a good strategy. Indeed, I'm fairly pleased with all of the players we brought in - although I'll reserve judgement on Maitland-Niles because I've not seen him play for ages.

If we have another summer shopping primarily (but not exclusively) in the sub £30m zone - we should be able to build up a much more competitive squad. Indeed that sub-£30m zone looks to have delivered a long list of really high quality players to player league rivals - such as:

Quinten Timber €20.00m
Malick Fofana €30.00m
Chema Andres €22.00m
Taylor Harwood-Bellis €29.00m
Dayann Methalie €28.00m
Dion Suzuki €30.00m
Nobel Mendy €23.40m
Caleb Yirenkyi €27.00m
Konstantinos Tzolakis €23.00m
Antonio Silva €25.00m
Abdul Fatawu €23.45m
Sean Steur €23.00m

If you bulk up on these sorts of signings, it enables the odd bigger signing - as with the likes of Mamadou Sangare (€48.00m) bought by Brentford this summer. He looks very good.

It is not as sexy as, say, Spurs' big spending - but then it remains to be seen whether Spurs have really changed their fortunes, or whether they have just spent a fortune on the world's most expensive average players. And in any case, we just can't do it. Our financial situation doesn't let us - so we have to have a different strategy to that of Spurs and the other richest 6 to 8 clubs.

I think you might be right Robert @ 2 but, and there is always a but isn't there, your name isn't Friedkin.

Your repost makes sense to me and the majority of readers. Sure but what you and I think is not of significance to the Friedkins. In fact we don't know what they are thinking as they have not deemed to tell us, more the shame. Yes, they may be fattening us up for sale as many businessmen would but it seems to me that this strategy, if it exists, would be somewhat short sighted as an Everton who did reach the upper reaches of the League on a regular basis and get a history of winning things behind them would be a much more attractive proposition to buyers (note the plural as it is important).

So what I am saying is you may well be spot on with your thoughts but I prefer (glass half full moment) to give everybody some more time before we are thrown under the bus again and we have to start from scratch once more.

While TFG continues to claim that their ambition of starting a brand new NHL ice hockey team that will begin play in either 2027 or 2028 at Houston (or nearby Austin) has not been affecting the daily operations and finances of Roma and Everton, it is very difficult to accept that when their potential obligation for that project is around USD 3 Billion. And that £38 Million payment potentially to Burnley being put in escrow certainly doesn't help as well.

As Michael O. mentioned in the article, while it is less costly to stay financially viable while upgrading a team in Serie A, it is not the case with the Premier League. However, I concur with Robert T. that there are numerous quality players to be acquired at the Sub-£30MM range: either our scouting network was not good enough to allow us to be aware of their existence & availabilities or we do not present an attractive enough destination for those players.

Despite the last 5 days of the Window that saw Kinnear and Hammond blowing all our goodwills like a drunk man at the roulette table, there were some underrated but good deals (e.g. the Hayden acquisition, winning the Johnson-McNeil trade, drawing the last ounce of values out of the expiring contracts of Beto and Patterson).

So, let's continue to observe the TFG for now.